Not Spending Money Update

February 1, 2018

Hi friends. One month of 2018 down! Which hopefully means you are all progressing well on your goals for the new year. I am always filled with the desire to have this big long list of goals that’s difficult to achieve. But over the years I’ve been able to whittle it down to the ones I know will work best for me and are most attainable. As well as seeking out tools and tricks that can help me achieve these goals.

My biggest goal this year was to not spend any money until May. If you’re confused about how I am possibly going to do that or any other qualifiers be sure to read my initial post HERE.

Did I spend any money?

Okay I know it’s the first question everyone is dying to know – did I stick to it? So far the answer is YES! It’s helped that recently I’ve been booking a lot of travel for work so my credit card is pretty much pushed to its limits.

I did not buy any more clothes and can report that I’m not feeling sick of my wardrobe right now. That’s helped by the fact that I have quite a robust A/W closet. But I have a few good quality pieces from a couple years ago that I whipped out for the first time in a while and it was nice to try out different style aspects of myself.

I also did not buy any new books, household items, baking items, makeup or any STUFF in general. There were a few times I would be in a store or looking at something online and think oh I’ll just pop that in my cart before I remembered but I stuck to it.

What did I spend money on?

As I clarified in my initial post, I am still spending money of course. I need to pay my rent, buy groceries, buy essentials, etc. and experiences don’t count.

So to be completely transparent I did make a few big ticket purchases in the last month. On top of buying small things like more makeup remover and facial cleanser I may have doubled down on experiences.

But that’s all right because this experiment was never about limiting my spending so much as not consuming as much, it’s about all of the STUFF I own and not taking in anymore of it. I simply didn’t need anything else.

So things I did buy: tickets to Come From Away for May, tickets to a Kendrick Lamar concert in June, tickets to a beer festival (even though I don’t drink beer I am susceptible to peer pressure) in July, lots of movie tickets. All of this happened in the past week too. It seemed like everyone was getting a bit of the January blues and needed to have something to look forward to so I needed to jump on these tickets before they sell out.

What do I want to spend money on?

Okay just because I didn’t buy any more stuff doesn’t mean I didn’t want to. In order to quell some of my desires I started making a list on my phone of all of the things that I wanted to buy. This way I can keep track of it throughout the next coming months and then when my self-imposed ban is lifted, see if I still want these items, while continuing to curate it throughout.

So right now some of the things I really want include:

Weighted blanket

Cookie decorating tools

Mini backpack/camera bag

Leggings with mesh cutouts

New jumpsuit

Outfit for my upcoming birthday

Sneakers with silk laces

The weighted blanket is something I saw Rachel Parcell talking about on her insta stories in December and have been obsessed with ever since. I don’t think I’ll buy one any time soon though, I’ll save it for down the line when my partner and I move in together.

As far as some of the other items go, I own two jumpsuits I’m obsessed with (you can see one of them on my insta HERE) I find them so easy to style and really comfortable so I want to add another to my collection. I also know myself and know that I will want to wear something special on my birthday. So I’m not sure how I’m going to navigate that this year without making any purchases. Then the sneakers, admittedly I saw Amber Fillerup-Clark wearing and thought they were so cute that I wanted a pair.

What have you been spending your money on recently? Have you ever tried a spending ban like this before? And place your bets – will I cave or can I stick it out three more months?

I’m off to Miami in two weeks and very excited about it. So you won’t want to miss a moment of content coming your way. Be sure to follow on bloglovin’ so you don’t.